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Dodge still in 'shock and awe' over decision to leave NASCAR

August 6, 2012

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Dodge is ending its run in NASCAR at the conclusion of the 2012 racing season. Ralph Gilles, president and CEO of the Street and Racing Technology (SRT) brand and motorsports for Chrysler Group LLC, confirmed via a conference call that the decision was made last Friday.

“Clearly this is an extremely difficult decision to have to share with our employees, our fans and the NASCAR community,” Gilles said. “Following our thorough, five-month-long process of evaluating all options for our future involvement in the sport, we decided to withdraw from NASCAR competition at the end of the 2012 season.

“We feel the pain. We don't take these decisions lightly.”

Dodge last walked away from NASCAR's top series in 1977 before re-entering in 2001 with five teams, including one fielded by Ray Evernham, the crew chief and mechanic who helped bring driver Jeff Gordon to prominence. Evernham's team had the highest profile among those in Dodge's NASCAR resurgence. That team had former Cup champion Bill Elliott behind the wheel.

Dodge's comeback hit a high mark when it found its way back to victory lane in June 2001, as Sterling Marlin won a rain-shortened race at Michigan International Speedway for car owner Chip Ganassi. That was the first of 55 victories for Dodge since its return.

Blaming the economic downturn in the 2000s, Dodge, however, was unable to keep its original teams in the fold. Evernham left Dodge in 2007 and Richard Petty Motorsports, along with the team of Chip Ganassi and co/owner Felix Sabates moved away from Dodge in 2008.

Rumors persisted early this summer that Petty Motorsports was coming back to Dodge for the 2013 NASCAR season, but those rumors never came to fruition.

Penske Racing has been Dodge's only major team since 2009. Penske raced in NASCAR from 1972 to 1977 before returning in 1991. That team raced Pontiacs through the 1993 season. Penske switched to Fords for the next nine seasons, 1994 through 2002, before switching over to Dodge.

In March, Penske said the move from Dodge was not motivated by money but by the motivation to bring his team a championship. With Dodge, Penske driver Brad Keselowski is seventh in the Sprint Cup Series points this season and tied for the series lead with three victories. Sam Hornish Jr. is currently driving the other Penske Dodge in the Cup Series. Hornish is replacing A.J. Allmendinger, who was released on Aug. 1 after being suspended indefinitely by NASCAR for a failed drug test.

“Upon the announcement by Penske Racing on March 1, we set up detailed evaluation process to determine who our prospective new partners could be and specifically what the future could hold for us, on and off the racetrack,” Gilles said. “We were initially pleased to see the vast amount of interest from multiple teams and sponsors that came our way. There were a lot of interesting packages and ideas.

“We looked at this process as a multipiece puzzle. We couldn't unfortunately put together a puzzle or a structure that made sense to continue our business and competitive objectives for next year. This decision was not based on budgets.”

Driver-owner Robby Gordon also raced a partial schedule with Dodge in 2011 and 2012. However, he has raced just three times this season.

“As we consolidated down to one team, we had an elegant situation with the Penske group, having a one-stop shop, engines and everything, and a high-quality team,” Gilles said. “Everything we do business in, we'd like to do it as well as possible. Not undermining the people who came to talk to us, but at the end of the day, it's really a big machine to put together and to do it right.”

Having just one full-time team in the sport played a large role in reduced exposure of the brand in relationship with the rest of the field in the Cup series: Chevrolet, Toyota and Ford. According to a Twitter post from Ann Arbor, Mich.-based corporate sponsorship analysts Joyce Julius & Associates, Dodge ($26.0 million) lagged behind Chevrolet ($59.2 million), Toyota ($57.9 million) and Ford ($50.5 million) in TV-exposure values through 19 races.

Dodge has stabilized financially since parent company Chrysler was purchased by Fiat in 2009, and the company has been working on new strategies for its NASCAR program in particular and its racing presence in general. Those strategies in 2012 have included promoting its Viper brand in the American Le Mans Series and its Dart in the Global Rallycross series. The Viper GTS-R made its debut at Mid-Ohio on Aug. 4.

“Our portfolio has diversified,” Gilles said. “It's not a matter of taking our NASCAR budget and reappropriating it. It's really more a matter of going racing at the level and quality we are accustomed to and not budget management.”

NASCAR CEO and Chairman Brian France said that he hopes Dodge will one day return to NASCAR.

“Dodge has been a great partner to NASCAR for many years, and they have been part of numerous memorable moments throughout our history,” France said. “They made a business decision not to return in 2013, as they did in 1977 before returning in 2001. We wish them well and hope they again will choose to return to NASCAR at a later date.

“Our fans have a passion for cars and emotional connections to particular manufacturers, and that's why in 2013 we will debut new race car designs that are modeled after each manufacturer's production cars. This change is a direct result of feedback from our fans, who are the most brand loyal in all of sports.”

Mike Pryson
- Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and M-Live Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek as online motorsports editor In 2012. Promoted to motorsports editor in 2015. Read more »See more by this author»